What is the approval rate for the Boston Zoning Board of Appeal?
The Boston Zoning Board of Appeal approves roughly 87.7% of the cases it decides — the citywide denial rate is about 12.3% — across 10,053 recorded decisions.
Across the full record of decided Boston ZBA cases, about 87.7% are approved and 12.3% denied. That high base rate means most applications succeed, so the real question for a developer or attorney is not 'will it pass?' but 'what did the cases in the 12.3% that didn't have in common?'
Recorded approval rates vary meaningfully by ward, neighborhood, relief type, and whether the filing names an attorney of record. Verdwise reports each of those slices from the record, so a specific project can be read against how comparable filings were actually decided rather than against the citywide average alone.